[help-gnuspool] deskjet f380 via usb

[Karl Berry]

Hi John,

What I was really trying to accomplish was to be able to print on an hp
deskjet f380, connected via usb.  Truth is, I don't actually need a
spooling system; I'll be perfectly happy if I can just cat to a device.
But I wonder if you'll have any advice for me anyway.  This is on CentOS
5.4 (Red Hat Enterprise, essentially).

The best I've been able to guess at the device name is /dev/usb/lp0,
from the output of lshal.  (I've tried other, stranger, things too).
I've tried sending plain text, a PostScript file, and PCL generated with
gs -sDEVICE=deskjet -sOutputFile=out.pcl x.ps  and there's no sign that
the data is reaching the printer (no blinking of the light that usually
blinks).  Nothing happens, anyway.

With CUPS, I was able to print a test page.  (Which was farther than
I've ever gotten with printing on GNU/Linux since it and the hardware
were "improved" from parallel printers ten years ago or so. :)  So I
thought I was good.  But no: "lpr foo" (CUPS lpr, that is) hangs
immediately and forever.  

Presumably it is some kind of CUPS configuration issue, but after a
lengthy bout of frustration with the CUPS setup I could not figure it
out, and did not find anything helpful on the web.  Turned on max
debugging, etc., and was told that the device used was:
D [11/Feb/2010:10:35:09 -0800] [Job 5] 
envp[21]="DEVICE_URI=hal:///org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_3f0_5511_CN655FC01K04KH_if1_printer_CN655FC01K04KH"
Well, great; I can't cat to that :).  That's how I got to lshal.

So after a while of going down this path, I thought I'd try gnuspool,
with the results I sent in my other mail.

The printer itself is ok.  Works fine with an eMac we have.

Any help gratefully received :).

Thanks,
Karl